Giants' Wayne Gallman learning playbook through intense repetition

Giants' Wayne Gallman learning playbook through intense repetition

Going from a college playbook to an NFL one is never an easy task for a rookie. For New York Giants fourth-round pick Wayne Gallman, who will be counted on to be productive in the running back rotation this coming season, it hasn’t been.

Related

Gallman received a ton of carries in his final two years at Clemson but will likely have a more shared role in the Big Blue offense. The Giants are hoping their rookie back will be a nice complement to their starter Paul Perkins, who only has a year of experience as an NFL player himself.

The Giants may also rely on a larger rotation, including Perkins and Gallman, as well as Shane Vereen and Orleans Darkwa.

With Vereen primarily a pass catcher, it will be interesting to see what kind of workload the other backs get in the Giants’ youthful backfield. Gallman has already been working hard to learn the Giants playbook.

“My notebook is so full,” Gallman told Newsday. “I have every spread, whatever I need, to look over things. All of the things that we’ve taken down, I’ve written them down repeatedly.

“When we talk about what we learned last week, I’m still writing it down because repetition for me is always the thing that keeps me ahead. The repetition of it puts it in my head and it sticks.”

Gallman’s intense studying shows a clear dedication to the team. But even beyond his notebook, the rookie running back has had that dedication manifest in other noteworthy ways.

Clemson’s National Championship team — Gallman’s squad — visited the White House last week, but the fourth-round pick stayed with Big Blue to ensure he continued to put in the hard work.

This offseason we have already seen the coaching staff commend rookie Evan Engram for his ability to convert his film study to the field. It is vital to rookie success to be able to learn the playbook and effectively study film.

“I just write and write and write,” Gallman said. “If it’s the same thing on another day I’ll still write it because if I look back I’ll see it’s repeated and repeated. It must be important if I’m repeating it.”

Gallman joins an offense that ranked 26th in points last season and 29th in rushing yards, but much of that blame has been placed on the offensive line.

The standing hope is that Big Blue has addressed its problems in a mostly unconventional manner. It did bring in veteran D.J. Fluker to bulk up the line, but on top of that it signed wide receiver Brandon Marshall and tight end Rhett Ellison, while drafting Gallman and Evan Engram to improve the offense.